History of the Carrot Part Three

Evolution and Improvement AD 1500 to date

Chapters in the history rooms:

History Page 1 - A Brief Timeline
History Page 2 - Neolithic to AD 200 - Origins and development
History Page 3 - AD 200 to 1500 - From Medicine to Food
History Page 4 - 1500 to date   - Evolution and Improvement  - the modern carrot evolves.
History Page 5 - Explores, in some detail the theories of the road to domestication and the origin of Orange Carrots
History Page 6 - Takes an in depth look of the role of carrots in World War Two, reviving its popularity

By the 16th century nearly all the botanists and writers on gardening, all over Europe, were familiar with the carrot and were describing many kinds, including red and purple kinds in France and yellow and red kinds in England. Daucus came to be the official name in the sixteenth century, and was adopted by Linnaeus in the eighteenth century. It is thought that for the first few hundred years of its managed cultivation, carrot roots were predominantly purple. The Carrot crossed the English Channel via France in the early 16th century bringing its French name "carotte" to England.

The Orange Carrot Arrives ! It is said, (without much historical reference) that the orange carrot was developed in Holland as a tribute to William I of Orange during the Dutch fight for independence from Spain in the 16th century. The orange carrot, not only had a better taste, did not leech its colour into cookware,  but also had beta carotene making it healthier, and so all other carrots stopped being planted.

The noble carrot has long been known as an orange vegetable thanks to patriotic Dutch growers who developed the vegetable by selective breeding to make it less bitter than the yellow varieties, and then it was adopted it as the Royal vegetable in honour of the House of Orange.  The King at the time was William of Orange (1533–84), also known as William the Silent.

Carrots were originally purple, with a thin root. It is commonly reported that the cultivated domestic orange variety did not appear in writings or illustrations until the 1500's when it is thought Dutch agricultural scientists and growers used a mutant yellow carrot seed, perhaps from North Africa to develop a carrot in the colour of the House of Orange, the Dutch Royal Family.  

It is suggested by some historians that In an attempt to "nationalize" the country's favourite vegetable they began experiments on improving the pale yellow versions by cross breeding them with other varieties and wild forms.  These varieties contain beta carotene to produce orange-coloured roots.

It is more likely that Dutch horticulturists actually found an orange rooted mutant variety and then worked on its development through selective breeding to make the plant consistent.  Through successive hybridisation the orange colour intensified. Improved strains resulted in three main varieties red, yellow and deep gold. This was developed to become the dominant species across the world - a wonderful, sweet orange. 

The myth the Dutch "invented"  the orange carrot is a romantic tale, difficult to substantiate  in the light of the appearance of an illustration of a mutant/hybrid orange variety existing in ad 512, long before the current orange variety developed by the Dutch. There is also an 11th century manuscript shows an illustration of an orange rooted carrot. (A more detailed, academic discussion on the origins of the orange carrot is given in a separate museum page here.

There is one compelling argument for a much earlier, near eastern origin in the Byzantine illustration in the Dioscorides codex, drawn in 512 ad which shows a carrot plant with a thick, orange coloured root, indicating that carotene cultivars already existed at that time. (photo left below, click to view a larger version).

Byzantine illustration 512 a.d.	11th century script

There is subsequently an 11th century manuscript ( known as Pseudo.-Apuleius, Dioscorides) which also shows an orange rooted variety. (above right)

Whatever the origins, the Long Orange Dutch cultivar, first described in writing in 1721, is the progenitor of the orange Horn carrot varieties (Early Scarlet Horn, Early Half Long, Late Half Long). All modern, western carotene varieties ultimately descend from these varieties. The Horn Carrot derives from the Netherlands town of Hoorn in the neighbourhood of which it was probably developed. Horenshce Wortelen (carrots of Hoorn) were common on the Amsterdam market in 1610.  The earliest English seedsmen list Early Horn and Long Orange.

A further very early manuscript clearly shows an orange root, from Germany. Adam Lonitzer a German botanist, noted for his 1577 revised version of Eucharius Rösslin’s herbal, wrote Kreuterbuch including -  "Pastenachen Mören Pastinaca sativa, & sylvestris". Photo, compliments of the Smithsonian Digital Collection of Early manuscripts.

Adam Lonitzer - Frankfurt 1582

In 1598, Juan de Oñate, descendant of a wealthy mining family in Zacatecas, Mexico, won the contract to settle New Mexico. Oñate's expedition was a fully fledged colonising enterprise, and the introduction of new animals and plants was an important part of the plan.  Various accounts credit Oñate with the introduction to Mexico of carrots (amongst other vegetables and a variety of herbs and spices).

It was first generally cultivated  in England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 (1533-1603), being introduced by the Flemings, who took refuge from the persecutions of Philip II of Spain, and who, finding the soil about Sandwich peculiarly favourable for it, grew it there largely. The vegetable was a firm favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England. It seems royalty really got the ball rolling when a deputy to the English court presented Queen Elizabeth I with a tub of butter and a wreath of tender carrots emblazoned with diamonds. Lore has it that she removed the diamonds and sent the carrots and butter to the kitchen. They returned as the classic side dish: buttered carrots.

Carrots were slowly accepted for culinary usage during Elizabethan times. The yellow varieties were more popular as the purple strains turned brown and mushy when cooked.

By the 1700s Holland was considered the leading country in carrot breeding and today's "modern" orange version is directly descended from the Dutch-bred carrots of this time. Successive hybridization intensified the widely recognized "orange" colour of today.  This is the most commonly grown species today.
The 16th Century witnessed the used of carrots as flavourings for meat dishes, rather than a main vegetable. The herbalist Gerard noted that the yellow carrot has a mild flavour. (see more about the references to carrots by the ancient herbalists here.

17th Century - Both yellow and purple varieties were grown in Europe until the 17th century. As vegetables were at that time rather scarce in England, the Carrot's delicious root was warmly welcomed and became a general favourite, its cultivation spreading over the country.  In the 1600's, in England, carrots were common enough to be grown as a farm crop as well as in small garden plots The Wild Carrot, Daucus Carota, became known as Queen Anne's Lace, oddly enough at the time of Queen Anne (1655-1714) and the wild carrot so called remains today, although the name is of American origin. See more on the wild carrot page. By the 1600's carrots along with cabbages, onions, and garlic were growing on many of the Caribbean  islands.  It was even found growing on an island off the coast of Venezuela when it was discovered in 1565.

The New World - Carrots arrived before the Mayflower. European voyagers carried the carrot to America soon after discovery of the New World.  The cultivated European carrot was founds growing on Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela, in 1565, as shown by Sir John Hawkins reference to it

It was grown by the struggling colonists of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609. They planted cucumbers at the same time. Twenty years later the Pilgrims, or some of those who followed them closely, were growing carrots in Massachusetts in 1629. The Pilgrims themselves may have introduced it there.  The plants were grown from seeds brought by the colonists and very soon the plants escaped into the wild. Crow native Americans used the escaped wild carrot as a diuretic and stimulant to bring on menstruation.

Before the middle of the 17th century it was known in Brazil.

In the 1600's improved strains resulted in three main varieties, the yellow, red and deep gold. During this time carrots slowly gained acceptance as a vegetable to accompany boiled beef. Carrots were assumed to have aphrodisiac qualities. John Evelyn (1620-1706), an English virtuoso and writer, was a pivotal figure in seventeenth-century intellectual life in England. He left an immensely rich literary heritage, which is of great significance for scholars interested in garden history and the histories of intellectual life and architecture. Evelyn thought the yellow carrots to be the most nutritious. Roots were also used to feed livestock and it was reputed that cattle fed on carrots produced a superior quality milk. This was later found to be just the opposite as the feeding of too many carrots leads to a bitter milk!

In the reign of James I, (1603)  it became the fashion for ladies to use flowers, fruit, feathers and the like to decorate their clothes. This was amusingly extended to the use of Wild Carrot flowers and its feathery leaves and stalks to decorate their hair, hats, sleeves, dresses and coats. The lacy green foliage  was especially fashionable during the autumn months when the leaves took on a reddish colouration. 

Parkinson, the celebrated botanist to King James mentions "the light feathery verdure of which caused them to be no contemptible substitute for the plumage of birds."

It is mentioned appreciatively by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

A very charming, fern-like decoration can be obtained if the thick end of a large carrot is cut off and placed in a saucer of water in a warm place; the young and delicate leaves soon begin to sprout and form a pretty tuft of verdant green.  In later times carrots became popular with Puritans who encouraged the growing of all root vegetables.

At that time, doctors prescribed carrots for everything from sexual maladies to snakebite which some would argue, are biblically connected.

European "herbalists" flourished in the 16^th century. Renaissance and herbalism also included the curious Doctrine of Signatures that prescribed heart shaped leaves for heart ailments, suggestively shaped roots (like carrot) for reproductive disorders and so on. This system rose independently in many cultures and occasionally proved effective.

Nicholas Culpeper (1653) said of carrots that "Wild carrots belong to Mercury, and expel wind and remove stitches in the side, promote the flow of urine and women's courses, and break and expel the stone; the seed has the same effect and is good for dropsy, and those whose bowels are swollen with wind: It cures colic, stone, and rising of the mother; being taken in wine or boiled in wine and taken, it helpeth conception. The leaves being applied with honey to running sores or ulcers cleanse them; I suppose the seeds of them perform this better than the roots: and though Galen recommended garden carrots highly to expel wind, yet they breed it first, and we may thank nature for expelling it, not they; for the seeds of them expel wind and so mend what the root marreth."

In 1629, four years after the death of Queen Anne, John Parkinson published his monumental "Great Herbal," an encyclopaedia of all the plants then known. Parkinson says that the carrot's fine-textured leaves:

"... in Autumne will turn to be of a fine red or purple (the beautie whereof allureth many Gentlewomen oftentimes to gather the leaves, and stick them in their hats ... in stead of feathers.)"

In 1633 John Gerard's "Herball or General Historie of Plantes" refers to "Pastinaca sativa tenuifolia, Pastinaca sativa atro-rubens. - Carrots. The root of the yellow Carrot is most commonly boiled with fat flesh and eaten... The red Carrot is of like facultie with the yellow."    See more Herbal references on the Herbalists page here.

It was long cultivated on the Continent before it became known in England.

18th Century  By the 1700's Holland was the leading country in carrot breeding. At the time four main orange varieties existed - Early Half Long, Late Half Long, Scarlet Horn and Long Orange. All modern Hybrids are derived from these four strains. It was attractive enough to figure in several Dutch masters paintings. See the Art page for some truly great works of art featuring carrots.

We also know that this root crop was adopted by Native Americans, because it was listed among the Native American crops destroyed by General John Sullivan's army in 1779.

In forays against the Iroquois in upper New York State in 1779 Gen. John Sullivan's forces destroyed stores of carrots as well as parsnips. The story is told that children of the Flathead tribe in Oregon liked carrots so well that they could not resist stealing them from the fields, although they resisted stealing other things.

Find out more about John Sullivan (1740-1795) by clicking the picture.

Thomas Jefferson  (3rd President of the Unites States) raised several types of carrots in his Monticello garden. Thomas Jefferson wrote that "the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture."

The gardens at Monticello were a botanic garden, an experimental laboratory of ornamental and useful plants from around the world. At Monticello, Jefferson cultivated over 250 vegetable varieties in his 1000-foot-long garden terrace and 170 fruit varieties in the eight-acre fruit garden, designed romantic grottos, garden temples, and ornamental groves, and took visitors on rambling surveys of his favourite "pet trees."  Jefferson was crazy about gardening.

He also said "I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables which constitute my principal diet." (TJ to Dr. Vine Utley, 21 March 1819)

Carrots were allowed to escape cultivation and subsequently turned into the omnipresent and delicate wild flower  "Queen Anne's Lace" which in some US counties is still considered a pest today. Find out more about the wild carrot on its own page. Click here.

When the British Navy blockaded West Indian sugar from entering Europe in the 18th century, chemists made sugar from organic carrots, much as sugar is still extracted from beets (incidentally, rabbits much prefer beets to carrots).
 

In the long history of plant science, no name is more famous than that of Linnaeus and no book is more highly regarded than his "Species Plantarum," published in 1753, the starting-point for the Latin binomial, or two-word, names of plants. These are recognized in all countries, and so enable positive identification of a plant species anywhere, regardless of innumerable vernacular names.

Theophrastus, the father of botany used binomials even in the 4th century B.C., but it was Linnaeus who systematized them and made them into a workable code of nomenclature, distinguishing for the first time between species and varieties, and making the species the unit of classification. He recognised Daucus Pastinaca in the first edition.

First records in Australia show it arrived in 1788 with the First Fleet and convicts planted 'Long Orange' carrots on Norfolk Island just two weeks after their arrival and gathered in their first harvest in October of that year. Along with the cabbage, it became an important food for the colonists. Visit the Australia page for more information.

In 1791 William Lewis produced An Experimental History of the Materia Medica giving an account of the pharmaceutical properties and medicinal powers of plants. The book promoted the use of carrots as a diuretic, for the relief of stranguary (difficulty or pain in urinating). It indicated that wild carrots gave a stronger effect. It also recommends a poultice of garden carrot root to treat skin ulcers. He concludes by saying the "A marmalade of carrots has also been proposed as an addition to the stock of ships provisions, for preventing scurvy."

By the 1800's horticultural growers were producing roots of a colossal size. Some were two feet in length with a girth of twelve inches and weighing four pounds each. Carrots were widely cultivated in the walled gardens of country estates. Growers were continually experimenting with strains to create the perfect "show roots". Come the 19th century, carrots were widely grown and began their descent into the ordinary alongside onions and potatoes. This certainly was not a bad thing, as obviously some foodstuffs have to take the role as workhorse recipe ingredients. And carrots certainly do it well, whether it's the leading taste in a soup, cake or refreshing drink, or bit-player in stock, salad or stew.

The Danvers carrot is a true American heirloom, originated from market gardens in Danvers, MA. and introduced in 1871

Gentlemen in Teheran in the 1870's took carrots stewed in sugar as an aphrodisiac to increase the quality and quantity of sperm!

Joseph Banks the eminent botanist noted that carrots cultivated in Sandy, Bedfordshire were transported by mule to neighbouring areas, where growing conditions were less favourable.

All modern day carrots are directly descended from Dutch-bred carrots. The familiar vegetable with its thick sweet tasting root, comes from a natural variety of "Queen Anne's Lace" named Daucus Carota variety sativus (Sativus means cultivated) similar to dill, but with bright white umbrella - shaped flower clusters.  Learn all about the Wild Carrot - Queen Anne's Lace here.

This extract from the Kings American Dispensary in 1898 shows that a carrot poultice was recommended. "Preparation.-Take of garden carrots, scraped, 4 ounces, Indian meal (corn meal), 1 ounce, boiling water, a sufficient quantity to form a cataplasm of the proper consistence. Action and Medical Uses.-This will be found a valuable application to indolent and gangrenous ulcers, and painful tumours."

The discovery of vitamins in the 19th century, and more particularly of vitamin A, increased the appreciation of the carrot in the every day diet, as it could help prevent night blindness. For this same reason, during the Second World War, British pilots were given large amounts of carrots in their diet. Vitamin A is also good for nails, hair and skin. It has been recognised as having proven nutritional properties from the very early days. See the Nutrition pages for more information.

Wild ancestors and the modern carrot

In the days before the laws of heredity were properly understood, it used to be thought that if you grew wild carrots in your garden long enough, they would eventually turn into cultivated carrots, NOT SO!

The French Horticulturist M Vilmorin reported in a paper to the Royal Horticultural Society in London that in six years from 1833, starting with wild seed from white rooted plants, he had managed to grow thicker, biennial , red rooted carrots, but they remained course, forked and not very tasty. This partial success had nothing to do with cultivation and everything to do with the wild carrots gene pool that enabled him to fix the genomes he selected. He simply selected seed from biennial, red rooted variations. So he could not lay claim to be the founder of modern carrot, as many writers suggest.

Twentieth Century

In 1905 Sears opened its seed department.

As early as 1918, carrot was becoming more recognised as a healthy eating option.

Extract From : Everyday Foods in War Time, by Mary Swartz Rose, 1918


"Some of our very common vegetables are good sources of the calcium (lime) and phosphorus so freely supplied in milk. Among these may be taken as an example the carrot, which has not had due recognition in many quarters and in some is even spoken of contemptuously as "cattle food." Its cheapness comes from the fact that it is easy to grow and easy to keep through the winter and should not blind us to its merits.

A good-sized carrot (weight one-fourth pound) will have only about half the fuel value of a medium-sized potato, but nearly ten times as much calcium as the potato and about one-third more phosphorus. While actual figures show that other vegetables, especially parsnips, turnips, celery, cauliflower, and lettuce, are richer in calcium than the carrot, its cheapness and fuel value make it worthy of emphasis.

Everyone who has a garden should devote some space to this pretty and palatable vegetable. It is perhaps at its best when steamed till soft without salting and then cut up into a nicely seasoned white sauce; its sweetness will not then be destroyed nor its salts lost in the cooking water. It is not only useful as a hot vegetable, but in salads, in the form of a toothsome marmalade, and as the foundation of a steamed pudding.

For little children it is most wholesome and they should make its acquaintance by the time they are a year and a half old, in the form of a cream soup. A dish of carrots and peas (one-half cup peas, one-fourth cup carrot cubes, one-half cup white sauce) will have almost the same food values (for fuel, calcium, phosphorus, and iron) as an equivalent serving of oatmeal, milk, and sugar (three-fourths cup cooked oatmeal, one-half cup milk, one rounding teaspoon sugar) and will add variety to the diet without costing a great deal more unless one pays a fancy price for peas."

In 1936 in a publication entitled 'Cookery - Illustrated and Household Management'  there was reference to the "Nursery Breakfast" - Young children should have milk at every meal, fresh fruit and vegetables, such a raw carrot - preferably grated - and two or three eggs a week. The advice on purchasing carrots was that they should be firm, crisp and medium sized. (picture above)

1939/45 - World War Two, revived the popularity of the carrot and gave it a rightful place in the kitchen elevated to a new high as a major food source.

The full impact of the re-discovery of carrots is described in the page dedicated to how the humble carrot helped win the war! Here

'Doctor Carrot' had arrived. The Ministry of Food promoted carrots heavily as a substitute for other more scarce vegetables.

To improve its blandness, people were encouraged to enjoy the healthy carrot in different ways by promoting various recipes such as curried carrot, carrot jam and a homemade drink called Carrolade, made up from the juices of carrots and Swede grated and squeezed through a piece of muslin.

In wartime Britain children would very often use the humble carrot as a substitute for the fruit they could no longer obtain. Similarly the Government also issued a poster with the slogan 'Carrots keep you healthy and help you see in the blackout' to promote the humble carrot.

Toffee could be made from treacle syrup, sugar, cocoa and dried milk powder. Kids made toffee carrots in place of toffee apples.

Dig For Victory  - In October 1939 Rob Hudson, Minister for Agriculture, announced "We want not only the big man with the plough but the little man with the spade to get busy this autumn... Let 'Dig for Victory' be the motto of everyone with a garden". It was a desperate request, for farmers could only produce 30% of the country's food. But if gardens could be turned over to growing food rather than flowers, up to 25% of the necessary vegetables could be provided. 

The Dig for Victory Campaign was a huge success, mirrored in the USA by the Dig for Plenty programme and associated Victory Gardens,

Dig for Victory was very successful. From a total of 815,000 allotments in 1939 the number rose to 1,400,000 by 1943.

People at all levels of society ate took nutrition more seriously and fed their families sensibly with the rations and whatever vegetables and fruit were available, and with less sugar and fewer sweet snacks there was less tooth decay. As a whole the population was slimmer and healthier, than it is today.   People ate less fat, sugar and meat and many more vegetables.

Lots more on the World War Two page, including war time recipes, leaflets and posters. Disney characters created to promote the consumption of carrot, and how carrots helped with the battle in the air, with "super sighted" fighter pilots. All here.

In the 1960's, like so many vegetables, carrots suffered under large-scale food production and industrial distribution methods, where taste was secondary to whether a vegetable could survive packaging and transport. It’s said that suppliers would drop sacks of carrots on the floor and the variety that remained in tact was the one chosen. This resulted in the death of old favourites, not least the Chantenay, which had a reputation as a hard carrot to grow. 

Luckily this variety has made quite a comeback because of its lovely sweet taste.

Because of this vegetable's inherent sweetness, it has been used for desserts and sweets long before the ubiquitous carrot cake. The Irish and English make a carrot pudding, the French make a cream with candied slivers of carrots in it, "tzimmes" a sweet carrot stew, is traditional for the Jewish New Year and early New Englanders gave carrot cookies as Christmas gifts. See the recipes page.

Are we amused now by the ancients' attaching such medical importance to the carrot? Why should we be? In America in the past 25 to 30 years the humble carrot has risen from an obscure root, considered mainly as a delicacy for horses, to a position of genuine importance as human food.

How did it happen? Our doctors and nutrition experts made us believe carrots are "good for us"; we know that varieties with a deep orange colour are rich in carotene, or provitamin A, found also in other yellow vegetables and in green leaves. Vitamin A is found in such foods of animal origin as fish-liver oils, butter, and egg yolks.

Perhaps the ancient Greeks were the real discoverers of the benefit of carrots in the diet. However, they did not know the reasons and lacked the teaching facilities used to induce us to eat our carrots. Carrots are as important a food to modern man as they were to our early ancestors. Because they are nutrient-dense, portable, delicious and versatile, they meet the needs of today's lifestyles and fit into today's dietary guidelines. Check out the Nutrition pages.

The popular carrot, in its orange colour, rules the western carrot world. There are literally hundreds of varieties to choose from. The most widely favoured are Autumn King and Early Scarlet Horn.

In China and Japan yellow and red varieties are very popular. The purple carrot is making a comeback and is proving popular in several American States.

Many countries are now marketing "rainbow" carrots, mixed bags of red, yellow, white, purple and orange carrots and this novelty attraction seems to be successful.

Modern selection and breeding now concentrates on producing strains with an even colouring, size and tender flavour. Greater resistance to bolting is also another aim of growers. Control over the serious pest, carrot fly seems to depend on the levels of phenolic acid in the roots. The carrot fly larvae appear to avoid strains low in acid content.

The cause of cavity spot was only discovered in 1980. Now identified as an infection caused by an air borne fungus (Pythium Volae). Another serious pest is Sclerotina Rot, also caused by a fungus. The black fruiting bodies over winter in the soil and germinate during the spring. At present there is no remedy for this affliction and all contaminated roots must be destroyed. Today there are hundreds of varieties to choose from. The most widely favoured variety must be "Autumn King" with the "Early Scarlet Horn" a close second.

Baby Carrots

A "true" baby carrot is a carrot grown to the "baby stage", which is to say long before the root reaches its mature size. These immature roots are preferred by some people out of the belief that they are superior either in texture, nutrition or taste. They are also sometimes harvested simply as the result of crop thinning, but are also grown to this size as a specialty crop. Certain cultivars of carrots have been bred to be used at the "baby" stage. One such cultivar is 'Amsterdam Forcing'.

"Manufactured" baby carrots are what you see most often in the shops - these are carrot-shaped slices of peeled and tumbled carrots, invented in the late 1980's as a way of making use of carrots which are too twisted or knobbly for sale as "full-size" carrots.  They're passed out on airplanes and sold in plastic containers designed to fit in a car's cup holder. At Disney World, burgers now come two ways: with fries or baby carrots.

Read the full Baby Carrot Story here. Digging the Baby Carrot.

The Future - A Rainbow Carrot?

How do you get people to eat more carrots? You excite their senses. Surprise them, say, with unexpected colour and explosive flavour. It’s a worthwhile tack to take, says Philipp Simon, plant geneticist at the Vegetable Crops Research Unit in Madison, Wisconsin. He should know. Simon, who heads the ARS laboratory on the University of Wisconsin campus, helped elevate the humble carrot to its current prestigious position. Thanks to work he did with colleagues more than 25 years ago, the carrot is now an even better source of dietary vitamin A.

Using classical breeding methods, they helped boost the veggie’s already abundant stores of beta-carotene by 75 percent. Beta-carotene is what our bodies use to make all-important vitamin A, which is crucial for good eye health and a strong immune system. It’s also responsible for the carrot’s orange hue.

Simon would like to sneak in other nutrients too. That’s why, several years ago, he got to wondering: Why settle for just orange? After all, 700 years ago Western Europeans were feasting on carrots that ranged in colour from lemon-yellow to burgundy to purple. We can have the same variety today—and the healthful antioxidants associated with those brightly coloured pigments.

In addition to breeding yellow, red, deep-orange, purple, and even white carrots, Simon aims to create a “rainbow” carrot - a multi-pigmented root that naturally contains several antioxidants, such as lycopene, lutein, and anthocyanin.

Fuel for Cars?

Scientists now believe that bio fuels will be the answer to our energy needs when the oil runs out. One such fuel, perhaps within 10 years, will be carrots - it would take approximately 6000 carrots to drive one mile.
 

Scientists unveil New 'supercarrot' (from the BBC, Spring 2008)

The new carrot could ward off osteoporosis Scientists in the US say they have created a genetically-engineered carrot that provides extra calcium. They hope that adding the vegetable to a normal diet could help ward off conditions such as brittle bone disease and osteoporosis. Someone eating the new carrot absorbs 41% more calcium than if they ate the old, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study suggests.

The calcium-charged vegetable still needs to go through many safety trials. "These carrots were grown in carefully monitored and controlled environments," said Professor Kendal Hirschi, part of the team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. Much more research needs to be conducted before this would be available to consumers Professor Kendal Hirschi Baylor College of Medicine "Much more research needs to be conducted before this would be available to consumers." But the scientists nonetheless hope their carrot could ultimately offer a healthier way of consuming sufficient quantities of the mineral.

Dairy foods are the primary dietary source of calcium but some are allergic to these while others are told to avoid consuming too much due to their high fat content. A gene has been altered in the carrot which allows the calcium within it to cross more easily over the plant membranes. On its own, the carrot would not meet the daily requirement of 1,000mg of calcium, but if other vegetables were similarly engineered, intake could be increased dramatically.

It is not the first time the carrot has been tampered with. The orange colour we know is the result of Dutch cultivation in the 17th Century, when patriotic growers turned a vegetable which was then purple into the colour of the national flag. Nor is it the first vegetable to receive a healthy make-over. Genetic engineering is being used to develop potatoes with more starch and less water so that they absorb less oil when fried, producing healthier chips or crisps. Work is also being carried out on broccoli so that it contains more sulforaphane, a chemical which may help people ward off cancer.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait of the University of East Anglia said genetically engineering foods to increase their nutrient content was becoming an increasingly important avenue. "People are being told to eat more modestly to prevent weight gain, and many diets now no longer contain everything we need. "There has been great resistance to genetic engineering, but gradually we are moving away from the spectre of 'Frankenstein food' and starting to appreciate the health benefits it may bring."

Also!!

Researchers have created a new genetically engineered carrot that has 41 percent more calcium than the regular carrot, reports a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Altering a gene boosts levels of transporter proteins, which pump calcium from the soil into the plant. This kind of technology could help combat conditions like osteoporosis. The carrots may become available within three to five years (from 2008) .  Read more here

Standard Carrots - “This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot,”

European Union bureaucrats are to usher in a new age of acceptance when it comes to knobbly fruit and vegetables, scrapping the rules dictating that only "standard" size carrots can be sold in shops.

Misshapen and blemished fruit and vegetables are likely to find their way back on to supermarket shelves – although they may be labelled "for cooking" under reforms being proposed by the EU's Danish Agriculture and Rural Development commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel.

" We want to have two classes, allowing supermarkets to sell funny shaped vegetables," said Michael Mann, a spokesman for the European Commission.

Ms Fischer Boel wants to abandon the eccentric rules that brought scorn on the EU and led to criticism that perfectly formed harvests had been achieved at the expense of taste.  The rules specify the diameter of carrots that can be sold as class one, unless they are officially regarded as baby carrots.  The Commission will now formally adopt the changes which, for practical reasons, will be implemented from 1 July 2009.


This rule will be scrapped:

"Carrots - Carrots less than 1.9cm in diameter at the thick end could not be sold as class one, unless marketed as "baby" varieties."
 

The carrot is one of the most important vegetables in the western world.

The simple, wild tap root eaten by our Neolithic ancestors has come a very long way!.

Reference material is here.

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